Feeding device.



'1. TGMLINSON.

FEEDING DEVICE.

APPucAloN man JAN. 13. 191s.

www.

Patented Nov. 9, 1915.

Z6 Z5 Z4 Z3 ZZ "Ilul .--1-51191 l. -llp UNITED STATES PATENT FFICF.

`Iosiirii ToMLINsoN, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AssIGNoIi. To cox4MULTI-MAILER COMPANY, or vAUcrUs'1,,MAINEJ n c oItPoRerIoN or MAINE.

FEEDING DEVICE.

To all #whom/ may concern:

Be it knovvnthat I, .Iosnrrr ToMLINsoN, a

Y citizen of the United States, residing at Chivention is to p rovide asimple, durable and inexpensive device of the class described,

which vmay be readily and easily adjusted to accommodate books'orpamphlets of different thicknesses, so that only a single book orpamphlet or a predetermined number of them may be moved from beneath apile or stack of lthe samevin position to be gripped and fed to aprintingor folding machine. t

A further object ofthe inventionisto provide means for adjusting thenumber of books or pamphlets Whichjmay be fed atone time. j

. For the attainment of these ends and the accomplishment' of other newand useful obseveral parts, rgenerally shown inV the accompanyingdrawings and described in the speciiication, but more particularlypointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a top plan vieiv of a deviceconstructed inaccordance is a sectional view of the same taken on the une 2 2 of Fig.li.

In feeding magazines, pamphlets and the like, to a printing or foldingmachine, it is customary to employ a. hopper in which the books ormagazines are placed .and from f which they are fed, one or more at atime,

to the printing or Wrapping machine. It is customary to pilethe books orlpamphlets in la stack upon a feeding plate which reciprocates, vmovingone or more of the books or pamphlets from the bottom o-f the sta ck.'If

the'books vor pamphlets are piled in a vertical pile, the Weight ofthestacklimits the l height thereof, so that only a certain num-Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 13, 1913. Serial No. 741,653.

may be fed from a stack 15 disposed-in the Fig. 2

Patented Nov. 9, 1915.

Ais too high, the pressure on the lovvermost book is so great that it isvery diiiicult to -feed it from under the stack. VThe presentV inventionovercomesv this diliculty by inclining the stack of books or pamphletsat a vcertain angle, thereby relieving the pressure upon the .loivermostbooks or pamphlets, so that they maybe easily and readily fed from thebottom of theestack.

Vprovided on the inside with inclined groovesv l7; Movable .in thegrooves 7 is a slide 8 provided with a shoulder 9upon its upperportionof any desired or suitable height land ivithone or more dependinglugs or projections 10 intermediateV of the ends of thel slide. Suitablymounted upon the support 5 and securedthereto is a hopper 11 disposedkover :the slide-8 and with a transverse portion 12 extendingsubstantially at right angles to the slide 8 andthe grooves 7. This"Vtransverse portion l2 terminates at a dis# tance above the slide and ispreferably provided with one or more slots 13. A movable plate 1-l isdisposed against the transverse portion 12 Within the hopper and'extends 'downwardly toward the slide. The plate 14: is adjustable Withrespect to the slide, so thatfone or more pamphlets offanythicknesshopper, and any desired or suitable means may be' employed for adjustingthe position ofthe platele with respect to the slide.Preferably,hovvever, the'plate is provided with a thumbv screw 16threaded into Vthe plate and having a Washer 17 disposed thereoin` thethumb screw being inserted through one ofthe slots`131in the transversekportion of the hopper. In order to move the jslide lin tliegroov-es 7andy to grip the book or pamphlet as it is moved from beneath the stackthereof, any desired or suitable means maybe employed, such, forexample, as that shown in the drawings.V

A plurality of shafts 18, 19, 20 and 21'are rotatably mounted in thesupport, and eX# tending transversely of the slide 8 and providing asupport for the gears 22, 23, 24

Vandl25, which mesh .With each other andare drivenby any desired orsuitable engaging meanjs,sueh, for example, as a gear26.- vOnev of theshafts, as 18, is also provided with a plate '2? haring a crank pin 28projecting therefrom, and a link 29 forms connection between the crankpin and the projection lO, which. depends from the plate 8 so that therotation of the shaft 18 together with the plate Q7 rsi l cause thecrank 29 and the slide 8 to be reciprocated. One of the other shafts, as22, is provided with a roller 30, the upper face of vwhich is preferablyflush with the upper face of the slide S and is adapted to engage thelower face of a book or pamphlet when moved into position by the saidslot. second roller 31 is rotatable upon a shaft 32 and is disposed in aposition to engage the upper face of the book or pamphletv as it ismoved from beneath the stack of the same in the hopper.

ln operation itis necessary only to adjust the plate le to present anopening of the desired Width at the bottom thereof between the loueredge of the plate and the upper face of the slide 8, so that when theslide is reciprocated, the books or pamphlets Will be fed from thebottom of the stack in accordance with the position of the plate 1l, sothat any desired number of pamphlets may be fed at the same time. 'lnorder to produce the required result, it is necessary that the stack ofbooks or pamphlets be inclined so that the entire Weight thereof willnot rest directly upon the slide 8, and for` this purpose the slide isinclined in the direction of feeding and the plate 14 is correspondinglyinclined and is preferably disposed at right angles to the plane of theslide. t is found upon experiment-ationV that the bestresults areattained when the slide and the plate aredisposed at an angle ofsubstantially thirty degrees from the horizontal and Vertical,respectively. With the plate of the hopper disposed 'at this angle, thebooks to be fed therefrom may be piled in the hopper to any desiredheight and after a certain height is reached the pressure on thelowermost book ivill not be appreciably increased by the addition ofmore books, so that it is easily possible to keep a stack of books inthe hopper at all times, so that they may be fed regularly by thefeeding slide. of material assistance in properly positioning the booksor pamphlets, in the hopper, for they will take the proper position bythe action of gravity alone, so that they Will be properly presented tothe shoulders of the slide and may be easily and Vregularly fed therebyuntil they are engaged by the grip-- ping rollers 30 and 3l. Although anangle of substantially thirty degrees is found best for the inclinationof the slide and plate, it is obvious that a slight variation from thisangle will not produce materially different results and the angle maydepend somewhat upon the nature of the articles to be fed Thisinclination is. alsofrom the feeding device and the height of the stackwhich may be maintained in the hopper.

'Vilhat l claim is:

l. In a device for feeding books and the like to a printing or foldingmachine, the combination With a support having parallel members spacedapart With the grooves on the inside thereof inclined to the horizontal,a slide provided with an upwardly extending shoulder and a dependingprojection and slidable in said grooves, a hopper disposed abore theslide and secured to said support comprising side pieces and an inclinedtransversely extending portion terminating at a distance above the slideand having slots therethrough, a plate disposed Within the hopperagainst the said'portion, and thumb-screws inserted through said slotsand threaded into the plate to position the plate with respect to theslide, shafts rotatably mounted in said support, interengaging gearsmounted on said shafts, a crank plate mounted on one of said shafts, acrank to connect the depending projection of said slide to the plate toreciprocate the slide When the plate is rotated, and rollers mountedupon others of said shafts and disposed to engage, grip, and Withdrawthe books from the hopper when fed therefrom by the slide, one of saidgears forming a driving connection for the other gears and the rotatableshafts.

2. In a feeding device of the class described, the combination of aninclined reciprocatory shouldered slide upon which the articles to besupported rest, the slide constituting the sole support for theloiyermost articles, the shoulder of which engages the rear of theloirermost article to feed it forivardly, and a hopper having aninclined side upon which articles to be fed are partially supported totake some of the Weight from the slide.

3. In a feeding device of the class described, the combination with areciprocatory slide inclined in the direction of feeding upon which thearticles to be fed are partially supported, the slide constituting thesole support for the lowermost articles,`

having a shoulder which engages the rear of the lou'erinost article tofeed it forwardly, and a hopper with the side inclined from theperpendicular and Aat right angles to the slide upon which articles tobe fed arey 4c. In a feeding` device of the class described, areciprocatory slide inclined in the direction of feeding upon which thearticles to be fed are partially supported, the slide constituting thesole supportV for the lowermost articles, haring a shoulder which en-Agages the rear of the lowermost article to feed it forwardly, a hopperabove the slide with an inclined side upon which a stack of articles tobe fed is also partially supported for maintaining uniform pressure onthe lowermost article, and a plate adjustable toward and from the slideto limit the number of articles which pass from the bottom of the stackat each feeding movement of the plate.

5. In a feedingT device ofthe class described, the combination of a.shouldered reciprocatory slide and a hopper, bothV inclined from thehorizontal. and approximately at right angles to each other toform amutual support for articles contained in the hopper and resting on theslide, so that only a part of the Weight of the articles in the hopperWill fall on the slide, thereby limiting the pressure of the articlesupon the slide, the slide constituting the sole support for thelowermost articles, the shoulder of the slide being adapted to engagethe rear of the lowermost article belou7 the top surface thereof to feedit forwardly when the slide is reciprocated.

In testimony whereof I have signed my naine to this specification, inthe presence of two subscribing Witnesses, on this 9th day of January A.D. 1913.

JOSEPH TOMLINSON. Witnesses:

CHARLES L. KUEHNL, K. W. MONNELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe ,Gommissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

